Eric Tinker explains why he took Mark Mayambela off

‘I did what was needed’

By Marc Strydom -
22 October 2018

Eric Tinkler
Image:
Gallo Images

Chippa United coach Eric Tinkler would only say he “did what I felt was necessary”‚ explaining his first-half substitution of captain Mark Mayambela in Saturday night’s 1-0 Telkom Knockout loss against Orlando Pirates.

Tinkler said the reason for Mayambela’s substitution‚ being replaced by Daine Klate in the 42nd minute‚ should have been obvious to anyone viewing the game.

The former Pirates forward was taken off after the player had angrily responded with a wave of his arm at his coach.

This followed Tinkler having given left wing Mayambela a mouthful for being caught out of position on a Buccaneers attack.

Tinkler was supposed to be the first coach to attend the post-match news conference‚ but took so long with his team in the changing rooms after the game that Pirates’ Milutin Sredojevic ended up going first instead.

Tinkler later joined in at the same news conference‚ where normally at Pirates’ home matches the coaches go separately.

“You didn’t see why? Surely it’s obvious‚” the coach responded‚ when questioned on why he took Mayambela off.

“But it’s an internal matter. And that will be dealt with internally.

“But it was more than obvious. This is the biggest game on TV this weekend.

“Everybody across the country is watching Pirates. And you can’t behave that way.

“So I reacted to it. I did what I felt was necessary. But it will be dealt with internally.”

Mayambela later took to Twitter to apologise for gesturing at his coach.

His substitution came in a first half where Tinkler was not happy with his team’s performance overall.

“We had planned to press Pirates‚” Chippa’s coach said.

“We expected them to play in a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2 formation‚ which they changed.

“But we have played against other teams who have played in a 4-3-3. So the whole plan was to look to press them and we didn’t do that in the first half. Both Kurt Lentjies and Ruzaigh Gamildien were looking to press onto their centrebacks.

“It was too easy for Pirates to get the ball to Musa Nyatama and then they started coming at us and turning us‚ and creating little spaces in-between the lines.

“Which was something we practised and we allowed that to happen in the first half.

“I thought in that first half we looked like we were playing with fear.

“So obviously we had to make changes at halftime.

“And I thought the second half was a vast improvement.

“We made better decisions on the ball and our pressing was a lot better.

“How we conceded the goal was a bit disappointing‚ being beaten at the near post, but the way the team reacted was extremely positive.

“We got into the right areas but players have to understand that in those areas you have less time. And we wanted too many touches in those areas.

“But overall the second-half performance was good‚ first half not great.”

Pirates took the lead, in a period where the teams were matching each other chance for chance‚ when Xola Mlambo was fed into space on the right and cut back for substitute Vincent Pule to finish at the near post.